Month: November 2010

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No Gluten, Please

Dear Los Angeles Restaurants,

Celiac Disease is real. It’s not a fad or a preference. It’s an auto-immune disorder where the immune system attacks gluten, and in doing so, damages the small intestines. If the sufferer ingests gluten it could lead to stomach pain and inability to absorb nutrients.

In my husband’s case it could lead to much more. He’s also a Type 1 Diabetic. If he doesn’t absorb nutrients his ability to control his blood sugars is compromised.

Now I don’t expect every restaurant to be an authority on all of the food allergies, but if a customer says they can’t have gluten, which is wheat, barley or rye, please don’t give us gluten.

I bring this up because my husband and I had such a bad experience at a restaurant recently. We went to highly recommended spot for a rare night out without our kids.

I told the waiter that my husband couldn’t have any gluten and asked if the dish he ordered was okay. The waiter said it was. After my husband took a few bites of the dish he realized that the stuff sprinkled on top wasn’t nuts or cornmeal, it was barley.

When the waiter came back, he said, oh, it’s roasted barley and took the plate. I asked him for a new plate and to please not just take the old meal and scrape off the barley and give it back to us. I’ve heard of some Celiac’s refusing to give up their plate until a new meal comes, but I didn’t think it was necessary.

I was a server in a restaurant for many years and I know people make mistakes. I thought he either didn’t know what gluten was or didn’t tell the kitchen to make it without gluten. I get that, but what happened next was inexcusable.

After my husband finished the meal we looked at the plate and noticed that there was still barley on it. And underneath a piece of chard was the half eaten piece of meat that my husband had eaten before.

When I pointed it out to the waiter he said it was impossible because he gave our plate to another customer and he pointed to the guy sitting in the table next to us. So he either gave our plate to someone else after we’d eaten food off of it or he had the kitchen scrape off the barley. Either scenario is bad.

Needless to say, we’ll never go back there. But there are restaurants that care that their diners have a good experience.

After an awful first half of the evening, we tried to salvage the rest of it and went for dessert at Bouchon in Beverly Hills. We talked to the bartender about what happened and he pulled the chef over to tell us about the desserts. The chef knew exactly what gluten was and told us what we could and couldn’t have.

Again, I don’t expect restaurants to know about every allergy, just listen when we tell you we have one.

Note: When I tell servers that my husband can’t have gluten, I say “no gluten, which is wheat, barley, or rye.” At dinner that night, the waiter stopped me after I said “no gluten” and said that he understood because his mother is gluten intolerant. I mention it because a few people have asked.

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Burlesque!

If you’re looking for good acting, great dialogue, and a believable storyline, don’t go see Burlesque. But if you want to shut your mind off and hear the amazing voices of Cher and Christina Aguilera while watching fun musical numbers, definitely go see it.

Elise, of Elise’s Ramblings, and I bought tickets to the premiere at a charity auction for Autism Speaks earlier this month. I could hardly talk about anything else. Cher! Christina!, Stanley Tucci, Alan Cumming!

But where WAS Alan Cumming? He was completely cut out. I don’t know why he was even in the previews. What a waste. He’s an incredibly talented performer and singer but he barely had two lines.

What we did get to see was Christina playing a young woman who comes to LA from a small town and tries to make it big. She talks her way into a job as a waitress and then a performer in the Burlsque nightclub. Meanwhile, Cher is struggling to keep her club after losing money year after year. The rest of the plot is nonsensical. (How did Kristen Bell’s character and Cher’s start Burlesque together when Bell is 30 and Cher is 64?)

But it’s not about the plot. The movie is fun to watch. Beautiful people, beautiful voices, and the dance numbers are amazing. Cher sings 2 songs and she sounds unbelievable. And I have to say I love Christina’s voice, too. It would have been a much better movie if Stanley Tucci was the only one allowed to talk. He’s fabulous, but the rest of the cast, not so much.

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The Talk on CBS

There was a study earlier this year that said people who have deep and meaningful conversations are happier. I believe this 100 percent because I have fabulous, interesting girlfriends who like to talk. They can pick me up out of any funk I find myself wallowing in and they make me laugh.

I was thinking about the power of conversation last Tuesday when I had the pleasure of being a guest for a taping of The Talk and then a private lunch with some amazing bloggers and the cast of the show.

It’s always a treat to get together with the mom bloggers. They’re smart and talented and all so different. And the conversation is always meaningful. Tuesday we talked about The Talk.

Hosts Julie Chen, Sara Gilbert, Leah Remini, Holly Robinson Peete, Sharon Osbourne, and Marissa Jaret Winokur are hosts of the panel talk show. They asked us what we want to talk about and what we want to hear. There is nothing better in the world than someone asking for your opinion and actually listening. That’s why I think the show is going to do well. They want to know what interests people and how to be better.

For me, it would be to hear more from the show’s creator, Sara Gilbert. You remember her as the sassy back-talking daughter on Rosanne. Well, there’s a hint of that here, but she’s mostly quiet. The show is called The Talk and I hope that she starts doing more of it. I relate to her the most – she’s thoughtful, funny, sarcastic — and I want to hear what she has to say.

For instance, on the show we watched, one of the conversations was about Prince William’s impending wedding. Julie Chen said she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a wedding without her mother there. Sara Gilbert said she didn’t have a wedding and then went on to talk about her graduation.

Wait a minute. Did she not have a wedding because she couldn’t legally get married in the state of California? Or was it because weddings are so commercial and public? We’ll never know. I realize the show theme that day was mothers, but Gilbert is a mother and so is her partner.

I also think a conversation about same-sex marriage law is far more interesting than Prince William’s wedding. (But I may be alone on this. I got together with friends Friday and they talked at length about the impending royal wedding.) And that was something I mentioned after the luncheon talk with Julie Chen. I’d like to see more news, more world topics.

And I’d like to see more of The Talk. The episode we watched being taped made me laugh and cry. Sharon Osbourne and Leah Remini were funny and Holly Robinson Peete had a lovely segment with a mother and her young daughter who is suffering from cancer. When the mom said she cut off her hair to support her daughter going through chemo, I came close to losing it. And I almost did again during a segment with Sharon Osbourne and her daughter, Kelly. Kelly talked about when she found out her mother had cancer. It was touching and real.

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Itchy and Scratchy

I love my kids and I feel like I’m a pretty tough mom, but if my kids come home with lice I’m going to move out.

I don’t know what it is about lice. I know there are other bugs living on our skin, but I can’t see them or feel them. I’ve been puked on and peed on, I’ve had my son rub his eye lashes on my eye lashes and two days later puss was oozing from my eyes. I’ve experienced what it feels like to swallow razorblades after my older son came home with a mild case of hand, foot, and mouth. I’ve been sick more in the last 6 years than the prior three decades. It’s fairly disgusting living with two little boys (and one husband).

But lice? Gross. Vile. Alive. I’d rather have gunky eyes than bugs crawling in my hair. My friend has been coating her girls’ heads in a concoction of olive and tea tree oil to keep the bugs away. I haven’t gone that route yet, because in addition to my fear of lice, I can’t stand wet (or oily) hair. I blow dry my hair, even when it’s 100 degrees outside. When I spent a summer in Alaska, my brother said he pictured me in a tent in the outback with my blow dryer and a tube of lipstick.

My boys and I all have thick, curly hair. A ridiculous amount of hair. At points in my life I’ve been nicknamed “Hair” and “Cousin It.” And my boys have such thick locks they make Alec Baldwin look like he’s going bald. Lice in that forest of hair would not be fun.

So what do I do? It’s going around their schools so I’m afraid it’s just a matter of time. If those disgusting little things camp out in my boys’ beautiful hair I may have to (gasp!) shave it off. And my hair? I think I’m going to oil it up, put a shower cap on and take some Xanax.

This post was originally published in LA Moms Blog. I was thinking about it after I saw a note at my son’s preschool last week announcing that a child in his class was home with lice. I don’t have lice, but I’ve been scratching my head since Monday.

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Kinect

Life would be so much easier around my house if everyone (or anyone) listened to me. Why, why won’t they listen to me?

It’s my fault, but I’m still steamed, that the husband bought a Kinect Xbox controller for our family. And those were his words, “for our family.” Because our children and I could not live one more day without a Kinect.

Admittedly, it’s freaking awesome. Kinect is a game remote where you are the controller. The device scans you and then you control the game with the movements of your body.

My husband and 5-and 6-year-old boys were able to play with the Kinect before it was released on Nov. 4 at two events that I took them to recently (and another one when it was still called Project Natal). One party was hosted by Xbox in a fabulous private home in Beverly Hills. The other was at the Electronic Arts’s Annual Winter Wonderland party. So not only did we get to play the game before anyone else, but we got to do it in a fabulous setting with programmers on hand to show us how it worked.

We all played the new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows game for Xbox and Kinect at EA and it was very cool. I was Hermione, of course, and I let my geekiest of geeks come out when we were fighting deatheaters. We all had a very good time playing Kinect, but I don’t necessarily want to have one in my house where my boys are already video game obsessed.

The problem isn’t with Kinect, it’s with having video games in our house. I have to drag my 6-year-old out of bed every Monday through Friday morning. But come Saturday and Sunday, the days they can play Wii and Xbox, both boys are up bright and early. Up until recently my 5-year-old greeted each morning with “Is today the day we play Wii?”

I didn’t tell my husband to absolutely not buy a Kinect because I’m a buzz kill (although he might argue otherwise). But it’s too close to the holidays to go buying a big ticket item no matter who it’s for. And it’s too much. Too cool, too futuristic, too awesome for 5 and 6-year-old boys.

But, as my husband pointed out, it’s not too awesome for a hard working 42-year-old.

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Market Meetup at Michael's Restaurant in Santa Monica

I’ve been to the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers’ Market, but I had never really experienced it before last week. I was a guest of the second Michael’s Market Meet-Ups where the theme of the day was parsnips.
 
The legendary Michael McCarty, chef and owner of Michael’s Restaurant in Santa Monica, took a group of about 16 people on a tour of the market. It was a gorgeous, clear day as we walked with Michael and watched him pick out parsnips, crab apples, and Bloomsdale spinach. He told us which vendor sold the best pears for Tart Tartin in the Fall (Briar Patch), who had the best berries (Pudwill Berry Farms), and who to buy melons from in the summer (Rocky Canyon). We ran into Mark Peel from Campanile as he bought mushrooms and listened as Michael chatted up other local chefs making the rounds for fruits and vegetables.
We had started the morning with fresh baked cinnamon rolls and cappuccino at Michael’s and ended up back there after the whirlwind market tour. The group of us sat out on the patio and listened to fascinating stories about the early years of one of California’s most well known and ground-breaking restaurants.
The theme for November’s Market Meetup was parsnips so Michael’s Executive Chef Mikey Stern made a delightful parsnip puree. It was served with seared Nantucket Bay Scallops, Bloomsdale Spinach, and the best part of the dish in my opinion, Mangalitsa Pork Belly Lardons. Oh, my. It was fantastic.
 
And so was the wine. We were served 3 different tastings, but my favorite was the Pinot Noir (center) from McCarty’s own “The Malibu Vineyard.” It was light and smooth and quite delightful.
Next, we had perfectly cooked Braised Short Ribs with a tasty Parsnip and Fuji Apple Mash. It was a delicious end to a fantastic morning.
 
The Market Meetups are $60 and include a light breakfast, tour, tasting, and a signed copy of McCarty’s book “Welcome to Michael’s: Great Food, Great People, Great Party!” Visit Michael’s Restaurant blog in the next few weeks to find out what the theme is for next month’s Meetup.

Disclosure: I was not paid for this post, however, I was a guest of Michael’s Restaurants on the tour and tasting and I did receive a cookbook.

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Autism Speaks: Acts of Love

Last week I was lucky enough to attend Acts of Love: Parenthood, a wonderful benefit and award ceremony for Autism Speaks. Some of the actors from the show Parenthood performed along with John Doe on the acoustic guitar.

There were many touching and funny essays during the performance at Creative Artists Agency, but the one that struck me most was read by Mary McDonnell (Claire in Grand Canyon). It was about the mother of a grown son with autism. The character talked about her son and failed marriage, but when she was asked about herself, she paused. She said something about how there was no her. It was taken up by caring for other people.

That struck me because it’s so true with many women I know, especially those who are dealing with more than just your average frustrations of being a mother, including having kids with autism and childhood illness.

Jason Katims, the creator of Parenthood, touched on part of that theme a bit when he accepted The Acts of Love Awareness Award. His son has Aspergers and was the inspiration for a character on the show. Katims said he almost wrote the character out because it was taking over the pilot. He said when “Autism comes into your home, it’s rarely a C story… Like in life, it’s an A story.”

He also said that the night the pilot aired “Aspergers” was the most searched word on Google.

Parenthood is one of the few shows I’m watching these days so it was amazing to see some of the cast perform live including Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, Craig T. Nelson, and Max Burkholder who plays Max on the show.

Almost as amazing was meeting Olivia Munn of the Daily Show. She was very nice and genuine. I went to the benefit with Elise of Elise’s Ramblings and we chatted up Stacy Citron who was just on the reality show Thintervention and Jessica Lowndes of 90210.

Acts of Love also had a silent auction to benefit Autism Speaks and Elise and I bid on tickets to the premiere of Burlesque. And we won!!! We get to go see Cher!! Stanley Tucci!! Christina Aguilera!! and Alan Cumming!!

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Review: Sesame Street Game for Wii

It’s been quite a while since my 5-year-old was into Elmo. A long while. But I still held out hope that he would take to the new Sesame Street games for Wii and Nintendo DS.

I was one of a group of bloggers that went to a game demo in October. It was interesting to meet the developers and hear about how the game was made. We were given Elmo’s A to Zoo Adventure for Wii  (there’s also a DS version) and it came with a furry red Elmo cover for the controller.

The remote is held with two hands end to end and the cover covers up many of the keys to make it easier for younger kids to use.

The Elmo cover was very cute, but we ended up needing to take it off. The game wasn’t playing properly with it on. In fact, the controller was a bit wonky when it wasn’t turned and aimed directly at the television screen.

Once my son played without the cover and got the hang of it, he seemed to enjoy it. One of the questions I asked at the Sesame Street demo was how do I get my son interested in playing a game with Elmo and Zoe learning about letters when he’s used to pretending to be Lego Luke Skywalker fighting Darth Vader.

They said to ask our older son to help the younger one play the game. It was a cute idea, but all I had to tell my 5-year-old was that this Wii game was just for him. With a brother 18-months older, he doesn’t have much that’s just his and I think that may have won him over.

Admittedly, my son is an older preschooler and could be in kindergarten right now, but it seems like the game (along with his wonderful new preschool) is encouraging his interest in letters and words. And it’s rekindled his love for Elmo. He wants to read his old Elmo books and instead of curling up next to his plastic light saber at night he’s snuggling with his Elmo doll.

I hope that Sesame Street can fix some of the glitches with the game, i.e. the use of the controller, because I think it’s a great way for younger kids to play a more gentle and engaging Wii game.

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Sarah Palin's Alaska on TLC

I can’t believe that Discovery Communications is actually going to air “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” on TLC Sunday, Nov. 14. But more striking is how the Democrats haven’t made a bigger deal out of it.

The show, which is supposed to be a travelogue of Alaska, appears to be one giant political ad that will show the former vice-presidential candidate ice climbing and facing a bear. The title of one of the show’s videos on TLC.com is “Rock climber or rock star.” Some of the quotes from the TLC preview video include “Family comes first. It’s just gotta be that way” and “I’d rather be out here bein’ free.” If these aren’t future political slogans, I don’t know what is.

Palin claims she’s not running for president, but she quit her job as governor before her term was up. She campaigned for several right-wing and tea-party candidates during the midterm elections and some of them were elected.

The Democrats should be flaming mad that Palin has a show that presents an idealized view of her looking tough and commanding on a popular cable channel. When I saw a clip of the show at the Discovery up fronts in April I was reminded of a lesson from one of my journalism classes. The lesson was about what how images impact people’s opinion.

An example was a mostly negative 60 Minutes episode about Ronald Reagan back in 1984. Even though the show was critical of Reagan his approval ratings went up. It is thought that was because many of the images shown in the piece had Reagan standing in front of an American flag or looking commanding. That piece aired once, maybe twice, for about 5 minutes. Imagine what Sarah Palin’s Alaska will do for her opinion polls after the 8 week, hour-long show airs documenting her running around on great American adventures?

In addition to my concern about what this will do to her possible presidential run, to quote my kids “it’s not fair.” What if Palin does run for president in 2012? Will Discovery give her opponent an 8 week show? What if it’s Hilary Clinton? I suspect that the Republican Party would set up boycotts, burn televisions, and call for the resignations of all Discovery executives if Hilary Clinton got a show that pictured her hunting black bear in New York State.

It seems to me, that the only fair thing would be a promise of equal time to whomever her future opponent may be – even Barack Obama. Or maybe drop the show altogether and find another Alaska native to profile. How about Jewel? Or anyone who hasn’t recently run for vice president of the United States!

Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of the show sans Sarah Palin and I love Alaska. I spent one of the best summers of my life in Denali National Park. To see Palin try to climb a section of Denali, the highest peak in North America made me a little inspired to go back to Alaska. But as for the show itself glorifying Sarah Palin, it made me physically ill.

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Razor Scooter Giveaway

I have something really good for Giveaway Monday this week. I’m giving away a 10th Anniversary Razor Scooter. My son loves the one Razor gave us at the Razor Playdate.
It’s a replica of the original scooter from 2000 and it’s zippy and fun. All you have to do to win is live in the United States and leave a comment below. I’ll announce a winner on Wednesday, Nov. 17.

Thanks so much for entering and have a great week.

Or Thursday… I used Random.org to pick the winner and it chose OCS Grants Committee! Congratulations! I hope your daughter loves the scooter. Please email me your address, yvonneinla at yahoo dot com. 

Thanks everyone for playing!

OCS Grants Committe, if I don’t receive an email from you by Friday, Nov. 26, the Razor will go to another winner chosen by Random.org.

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It's Hard to Follow a Plan

Signing up to run the LA Marathon seemed like a good idea in August, but now that I’m several weeks into the training I’m not so sure.

I’m part of the LA Roadrunners and we ran 10.9 miles Saturday for our weekly long run. It was not good for me. My knees hurt. My hips hurt. I was so tired the rest of the day. That night I kept asking myself, Why am I doing this? I don’t ever want to run again.

Well, I did run again on Monday and it was fine, but not good. I have asthma and it’s been very bad lately. On Tuesday, I was gasping for breath most of the day and went to the allergist. The advice he gave me applies not just to my asthma, but to running and to the rest of my life.

He asked me about my medications and how I was taking them. Well, I had been cutting back on all of them little by little. ‘I didn’t have asthma in my 20s and early 30s so why should I be dealing with this now?’ I had thought. ‘I don’t need to follow this schedule.’ I wasn’t following the prescribed regimen that had made me feel better than I had the previous 3 years and it had finally caught up with me.

Then I thought about running. I was well aware that I wasn’t following that regimen either. When I ran the marathon in 2007 I did most runs while pushing 2 kids in a double jog stroller. I was sleep deprived and overweight. I thought I was so tired all the time for those reasons. Now I realize I was so tired because training for a marathon is hard! It’s especially hard because I haven’t been keeping up with the training runs during the week. I can’t expect to feel good running 10 miles when I only ran once the week before.

Once again I thought about my 20s and 30s, “I didn’t have to train that hard then so why should I have to do this now?”

I think the biggest lesson I learned this week is to accept my new self. I’m turning 40 next year and my body is getting older. I have to keep up with my training and I have to keep up with my medication. I’m not in my 20s anymore. And as challenging as it might seem to me, I need to keep going.